3 Tips to Become an Effective Leader and Influence Your Team’s Behaviour

Struggling with being an effective leader – unable to express your values to your team to influence behaviour?

There is a universal truth,

“People will always do what they want to do and you are one of those people”

And so is everyone who works for you.

So if you want people to behave in a particular way then you have to make sure that your people want to behave like that. This may sound oversimplified, however, consider people who work for you that frustrate you, continually cause you stress, always need to be put in their place or just don’t perform to your standards.

If you took the advice from the previous point you could ask them what they want to contribute to your business and you may be surprised by the answer.  They may be in the wrong role, a square peg in a round hole.

This happens in fast-growing businesses all the time as the business is evolving quickly and people will do whatever it takes to keep it all together.  Suddenly those very same people become demotivated, lose focus and their performance drops… and the natural assumption is that there is something wrong with them.

There is no greater pursuit than to develop the skill of NICE Leadership®. It is a style of leadership that nurtures people in their role and helps them grow in the organisation. It inspires people to step up, to contribute, to speak up and be counted. It challenges them to stretch, to go beyond what they already know or do and expand their impact. And, it empowers them to fulfil being their best self.

People work for people, not companies. Your people work for YOU. You are the driving force, the linchpin and it is you they turn to for guidance and inspiration, even if at the moment you are struggling to deliver it.

The pandemic has affected everyone, you included. Different working environments, personal challenges, no personal contact and the barrier of distance impacting all of your relationships.

Your people need to know who you are being so that they can follow you with intention. They need to know what is important to you, the business, the customers. They need to reconnect with you in a way that works given the current circumstances.

It can feel like a daunting task, and it is not insignificant. And, there are simple things you can do to engage with the individuals in your team and with your team collectively.

Here are three simple steps you can take to reconnect with the individuals in your team:

1. Speak with each team member privately. Ask them what they need, what is working right now, what is not working and what is missing? Listen for their contribution and the only thing to promise is that you are going to come back to them once you have figured out what you can do. Avoid making instant promises that you may not be able to keep.
2. Gather all of the responses and identify a few actions you could take to address the challenges, solve problems or boost morale, the answers will be in what your people have said.
3. Get together and share how you feel, and openly discuss the three actions you plan to take and get their feedback.  Be willing to adjust your plans.

There will be specific challenges that individuals have that you can’t address as a team. In that case work with your HR team, if you have one, or get in touch with a reputable HR specialist to help you come up with a solution.

Barriers to effective leadership and influencing team behaviour.

As with all skills, the biggest barrier to acquiring a new skill is your mindset. Leadership is an emergent skill, the more your business grows and scales the greater requirement on your leadership competence.  At each stage of growth, you need to develop greater abilities and you can, but you have to be ready to give up how you led yesterday to be able to lead effectively tomorrow.

The resource that best serves an emerging leader is a mentor, someone who has been there before. Not to tell you how to do it but to challenge you to consider the problems you need to solve to achieve the leadership effectiveness you require. You are an entrepreneur, by your very nature a problem solver. Identifying the next brick wall on your leadership journey and then overcoming it, is the greatest and most worthwhile challenge any business owner can pursue.

No business owner can do it on their own. We can do so much more when we surround ourselves with people who can contribute to our cause.